Mountaineer Basketball’s Ritchie, Amick Pass Away Recently
February 10, 2022 01:15 PM | Men's Basketball, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Two individuals with strong Mountaineer basketball ties passed away recently.
Jim Ritchie, a 6-foot-5, 190-pound forward on West Virginia's 1959 NCAA Finals team, died on Monday, Jan. 31, in Point Marion, Pennsylvania, and earlier this week Jim Amick, a four-year associate head coach on Joedy Gardner's staff, died in Yuma, Arizona, according to a tweet sent out by Arizona Western College.
Ritchie was one of the few performers on those great Mountaineer teams of the late 1950s and early 1960s who hailed from outside the tri-state area. New Jersey forward Joe Posch was the other.
"We were from a different world than theirs," Ritchie once recalled. "(Posch and Ritchie) had connecting rooms at Boreman Hall and then Jim Warren, Joe Posch and I lived together and Willie (Akers), Butch (Goode) and Jerry (West) lived in the other room."
The Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, native appeared in all 34 games as a sophomore on the 1959 team that lost to California by one point in the national championship game at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. He scored a season-high 19 points in a midseason loss at Northwestern and contributed double-digit scoring performances in the Mountaineers' two NCAA Tournament victories over Dartmouth (15) and Boston University (12).
His best season came in 1961 when he averaged 11.6 points and 7.4 rebounds in helping the Mountaineers to a 23-4 record and a top 10 finish in the national polls. West Virginia that season was upset by William & Mary in the Southern Conference Tournament semifinals and was knocked out of NCAA Tournament consideration.
Ritchie scored a career-high 21 points during a midseason victory over Furman and contributed a career-high 17 rebounds in an 87-72 win over VMI.
"I knew very little about West Virginia at the time," Ritchie recalled. "I could have gone to 10 other schools, but I was fascinated by (All-American guard) Rod Hundley."
Ritchie worked for more than 30 years in the Monongalia Health System, Inc. and served one term as Point Marion's mayor. He was also involved for years in the Morgantown Parks and Recreation summer youth basketball league.
There are now just seven surviving members of West Virginia's 1959 national runner-up team: West, Akers, Warren, Lee Patrone, Paul Miller, Howie Schertzinger and Jay Jacobs, an analyst on the Mountaineer Sports Network radio broadcasts.
Guard Ronnie Retton most recently passed away last November.
Meanwhile, Jim Amick's association with Mountaineer basketball lasted from 1975-78 as a key member of Joedy Gardner's staff.
The Meeker, Colorado, native and Northern Colorado graduate had strong junior college recruiting ties in Arizona, and he was responsible for signing some of West Virginia's top players during the mid-1970s such as Yavapai College forward Stan Boskovich, Eastern Arizona guard Tony Robertson and New York City prep standout Lowes Moore.
Amick was a dynamic and charismatic personality who sometimes went to extraordinary lengths to land WVU's top prospects such as Moore, a national recruit from Mount Vernon, New York.
Once Moore got invited to play in the Dapper Dan All-Star Game in Pittsburgh following his senior year of high school, Amick was worried that he wasn't going to be able to sign the explosive 6-foot-1 guard.
So he took matters into his own hands when he found out that Moore was sitting on an airplane in Laguardia Airport waiting to fly out to another high school all-star game. He somehow got the people at the counter to hold the flight from leaving the gate so he could board the plane and have Moore sign his scholarship papers.
"There was a fairly young guy at the counter and when I told him I was a basketball coach at West Virginia he said, 'Wait a minute,'" Amick once recalled years ago. "The plane was out on the tarmac and I had to run out there; they let the door down and I am there with (scholarship) papers in hand walking up the steps."
Amick already had the signature of Moore's mother, but he needed to get Lowes' signature as well to make it official.
"The stewardess was looking at me like, 'what in the hell is going on?'" Amick laughed. "I asked her if there was a young Black man sitting on the plane. She said, 'Oh yeah, he's in the back' so I walked down the aisle and there was Lowes sitting in the back seat.
"I said, 'Lowes, you've got to sign these.' He signed the papers and I jumped up and said, 'Have a good tournament.' He was flying to Dayton, Ohio, or somewhere else to play in some all-star game," Amick said.
Amick got Robertson, one of the top junior college guards in the country, to sign his scholarship papers on the trunk of his rental car outside Robertson's dorm at Eastern Arizona Junior College.
"No big ceremony; he was standing there, I got the papers out and he signed them," Amick recalled. "We shook hands and I said, 'I'll visit your dad and mom when I get to Detroit' and that was the end of that."
When Gardner was fired following the 1978 season, Amick stuck around for a short period of time to help with the transition when Gale Catlett got hired.
He then returned to Yuma and remained involved with Arizona Western basketball for many years, even serving in an emeritus capacity after retiring in 1990.
Amick had a 292-91 coaching record at Arizona Western, and he later helped the Matadors to four NJCAA Tournament appearances during his emeritus years.
"I kept the players from coming off the court and choking (the head coach) to death," Amick joked of his long-time emeritus role. "I did not travel, and I didn't sit up near the head coach on the bench. I sat down at the end of the bench and criticized him just like the players did.
"When he had staff meetings and the assistant coaches would say, 'Yeah, coach, that's right' I'd say, 'Well, that's not worth a crap.' If everyone around you agrees then you don't need anyone around you."
During their years living in Morgantown, the Amicks were also responsible for opening one of the city's most popular Mexican restaurants – La Casa, which used to be located in the Wharf District where the Morgantown Flour and Feed restaurant now resides.
Ritchie was just days short of his 84th birthday at the time of his passing, while Amick was 86.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families.
Jim Ritchie, a 6-foot-5, 190-pound forward on West Virginia's 1959 NCAA Finals team, died on Monday, Jan. 31, in Point Marion, Pennsylvania, and earlier this week Jim Amick, a four-year associate head coach on Joedy Gardner's staff, died in Yuma, Arizona, according to a tweet sent out by Arizona Western College.
Ritchie was one of the few performers on those great Mountaineer teams of the late 1950s and early 1960s who hailed from outside the tri-state area. New Jersey forward Joe Posch was the other.
"We were from a different world than theirs," Ritchie once recalled. "(Posch and Ritchie) had connecting rooms at Boreman Hall and then Jim Warren, Joe Posch and I lived together and Willie (Akers), Butch (Goode) and Jerry (West) lived in the other room."
The Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, native appeared in all 34 games as a sophomore on the 1959 team that lost to California by one point in the national championship game at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. He scored a season-high 19 points in a midseason loss at Northwestern and contributed double-digit scoring performances in the Mountaineers' two NCAA Tournament victories over Dartmouth (15) and Boston University (12).
His best season came in 1961 when he averaged 11.6 points and 7.4 rebounds in helping the Mountaineers to a 23-4 record and a top 10 finish in the national polls. West Virginia that season was upset by William & Mary in the Southern Conference Tournament semifinals and was knocked out of NCAA Tournament consideration.
Ritchie scored a career-high 21 points during a midseason victory over Furman and contributed a career-high 17 rebounds in an 87-72 win over VMI.
"I knew very little about West Virginia at the time," Ritchie recalled. "I could have gone to 10 other schools, but I was fascinated by (All-American guard) Rod Hundley."
Ritchie worked for more than 30 years in the Monongalia Health System, Inc. and served one term as Point Marion's mayor. He was also involved for years in the Morgantown Parks and Recreation summer youth basketball league.
There are now just seven surviving members of West Virginia's 1959 national runner-up team: West, Akers, Warren, Lee Patrone, Paul Miller, Howie Schertzinger and Jay Jacobs, an analyst on the Mountaineer Sports Network radio broadcasts.
Guard Ronnie Retton most recently passed away last November.
Meanwhile, Jim Amick's association with Mountaineer basketball lasted from 1975-78 as a key member of Joedy Gardner's staff.
The Meeker, Colorado, native and Northern Colorado graduate had strong junior college recruiting ties in Arizona, and he was responsible for signing some of West Virginia's top players during the mid-1970s such as Yavapai College forward Stan Boskovich, Eastern Arizona guard Tony Robertson and New York City prep standout Lowes Moore.
Amick was a dynamic and charismatic personality who sometimes went to extraordinary lengths to land WVU's top prospects such as Moore, a national recruit from Mount Vernon, New York.
Once Moore got invited to play in the Dapper Dan All-Star Game in Pittsburgh following his senior year of high school, Amick was worried that he wasn't going to be able to sign the explosive 6-foot-1 guard.
So he took matters into his own hands when he found out that Moore was sitting on an airplane in Laguardia Airport waiting to fly out to another high school all-star game. He somehow got the people at the counter to hold the flight from leaving the gate so he could board the plane and have Moore sign his scholarship papers.
"There was a fairly young guy at the counter and when I told him I was a basketball coach at West Virginia he said, 'Wait a minute,'" Amick once recalled years ago. "The plane was out on the tarmac and I had to run out there; they let the door down and I am there with (scholarship) papers in hand walking up the steps."
Amick already had the signature of Moore's mother, but he needed to get Lowes' signature as well to make it official.
"The stewardess was looking at me like, 'what in the hell is going on?'" Amick laughed. "I asked her if there was a young Black man sitting on the plane. She said, 'Oh yeah, he's in the back' so I walked down the aisle and there was Lowes sitting in the back seat.
"I said, 'Lowes, you've got to sign these.' He signed the papers and I jumped up and said, 'Have a good tournament.' He was flying to Dayton, Ohio, or somewhere else to play in some all-star game," Amick said.
Amick got Robertson, one of the top junior college guards in the country, to sign his scholarship papers on the trunk of his rental car outside Robertson's dorm at Eastern Arizona Junior College.
"No big ceremony; he was standing there, I got the papers out and he signed them," Amick recalled. "We shook hands and I said, 'I'll visit your dad and mom when I get to Detroit' and that was the end of that."
When Gardner was fired following the 1978 season, Amick stuck around for a short period of time to help with the transition when Gale Catlett got hired.
He then returned to Yuma and remained involved with Arizona Western basketball for many years, even serving in an emeritus capacity after retiring in 1990.
Amick had a 292-91 coaching record at Arizona Western, and he later helped the Matadors to four NJCAA Tournament appearances during his emeritus years.
"I kept the players from coming off the court and choking (the head coach) to death," Amick joked of his long-time emeritus role. "I did not travel, and I didn't sit up near the head coach on the bench. I sat down at the end of the bench and criticized him just like the players did.
"When he had staff meetings and the assistant coaches would say, 'Yeah, coach, that's right' I'd say, 'Well, that's not worth a crap.' If everyone around you agrees then you don't need anyone around you."
During their years living in Morgantown, the Amicks were also responsible for opening one of the city's most popular Mexican restaurants – La Casa, which used to be located in the Wharf District where the Morgantown Flour and Feed restaurant now resides.
Ritchie was just days short of his 84th birthday at the time of his passing, while Amick was 86.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families.
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